Douglas Jardine

£7.99

Douglas, Christopher

26/06/2003
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Paperback
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ISBN: 9780413772268

About
Douglas Jardine

'A rigorous and very readable attempt by Christopher Douglas to restore the balance of opinion in favour of someone too often vilified.' Time Out

The highly praised biography – revised and updated – of one of England's most controversial cricket captains.

When Douglas Jardine and his team set sail for Australia in September 1932, a controversy was raging in Australia between Don Bradman himself and the Australian Cricket Board.

Bradman had entered into a contract with the Sydney Sun to report the 1932/1933 Test series and thus was in direct contravention of the Australian Board's rules governing Test players. Until a compromise was reached it seemed that Bradman would not be playing in the Tests.

By the time the series was over another controversy had taken centre stage and was still raging. It was all about Jardine's use of "body line" bowling tactics that had effectively contained the Australian batsmen and Don Bradman in particular. Jardine and his team won back the Ashes but cricket purists were appalled by the methods used. Jardine was ostracised by the English authorities and left the game soon afterwards. He died a rather forgotten figure in Switzerland aged 58.

This biography explores Jardine the man, by background (Winchester and Oxford) of the establishment; and Jardine the cricketer, the aloof amateur with a ruthlessness more akin to today's professionalism, in his quest for victory.

The book is a thought-provoking, well-researched study which has been revised to reflect the changing view of events that took place seventy years ago.

Author(s)

Christopher Douglas

Christopher Douglas is author of Douglas Jardine - Spartan Cricketer, the biography of the English cricket captain and 'Bodyline' legend. He also writes (with Andrew Nickolds) and appears in Radio 4's Ed Reardon's Week.

Reviews

'A rigorous and very readable attempt by Christopher Douglas to restore the balance of opinion in favour of someone too often vilified.'